I am having a lot of frustration trying to bring up these Edison units on breakout boards.

If were a typical newbie I may have given up by now. The Intel site has many pictures and much text but it looks like they never actually had a newbie do a trial run. IMHO it was written for and by people that were already familiar with the system. Here are some immediate questions a first time user may ask. They need to be answered clearly if this thing is going to get wide use.

First it’s completely unclear if the Edison boards themselves actually have Yocto already programed on board when you get them. Is it necessary to first flash the unit before setting up a serial connection/interface? Forget the latest updates etc. Can one expect a USB/serial interface to respond to something like PuTTY? Yes or No?

In my case Win 64bit after installing the USB driver. Then I go to flash the Edison (assuming I need that).

I’m using the small breakout board. Next confusion – there are two micro USB sockets on the board. One J16, is a micro-A socket which I understand to be a “OTG socket”. The second J3, is a micro-B. Finding a true cable for a micro-A is difficult. Micro-B cables are often used. Since this socket seem to be only for power why is it, a hard to find, micro-A type. Will not a common USB micro-B cable not suffice to supply power. Yes or No. On two units here, I have used such a cable and they seem to flash fine. What am I missing?

On some units during the flashing process the process hangs during the install “Connect USB & power cables” …wait one minute. The “Next” button NEVER becomes highlighted. Why?

Next question during the initial flashing is one not to have the Edison USB connections hooked up until this stage. Yes or No. Needs to be clearly specified. The ones that worked for me were hooked up via the serial line at the start. Is this required?

One of my units is completely crapped up. It hung on the next key above, so I tried to flash it manually as the site suggested. Selecting the windows manual option, where it send me to the download page

It’s completely unclear which “download” to take from this page. I opted for the “Latest Yocto Poly image. Then I downloaded (as suggested) the dfu-util.exe file.

It’s completely unclear for the .zip files what the folder structure dfu-util.exe expects. Worse, the example below the text has a “Flashall.bat” file which is NOT included at least in the windows download. Has anybody at Intel actually used this program before doing this write-up?

There needs to be a better rewrite of how one manually flashes an Edison unit if the web based approach does not work. Any chance of this been include in a reply here. Somebody should do it with a real unit!

Lastly is there a way to get an Edison unit back to its factory default form? If so how?

Thanks in advance for whoever takes this response on. I can only hope it will help more than me.

I apologize for the delay in getting back to you. I’ll try to help you clear any confusion you might have about the Edison.

Regarding your first question-yes, it’s necessary to flash the Edison in order to use the board as it was intended to. If the image is not flashed, the board won’t have an operating system and features such as IDE functionality, WiFi, Bluetooth among many others won’t be possible. You can also flash the board using a custom image.

Regarding the OTG socket question, a Micro B USB will work fine with both the mini expansion board and the Arduino expansion board. You can see in the Assemble the board guides of both expansion boards that a Micro B USB cable will work fine. You can see this here https://software.intel.com/en-us/get-started-edison-windows-step1 .

Regarding the flashing process, there’s more than one flashing method available. Please let us know which of the flashing methods you’re attempting and post a picture of that message.

USB cable not connected-Yes, the USB cable needs to be disconnected. As soon as you connect the USB cable, the flashing process begins. Notice this happens as soon as you connect J16, J3 is not required to be connected for the flashing method

When running the manual flashing option you need to download the Latest Yocto* Poky image. You should the download dfu-util.exe and libusb-1.0.dll and place them inside the iot-devkit-prof-dev-image-edison-20160606 folder. You also mention the Flashall.bat file which is not included in the windows download. Do you mean that you couldn’t find a flashall.bat file inside the iot-devkit-prof-dev-image-edison-20160606 folder?

Thanks Sergio for that information. Very helpful. I'm currently in Korea for a week and will not be able to check things out until I get back next week. I am writing up a web page for users that deal with antique computer systems (S100 bus systems) but putting modern CPUs on the bus. I am putting together a section about bringing up an Edison interface. See here:-

I have been initializing Edison breakout boards with the USB port already connected at the start and working as a serial terminal. If not connected at the start but connected when asked for, the Next button never highlights. Is that because I am just re-flashing? I don't have any virgin ones left?

I cannot find flashall.bat anywhere on that download web page and definitely not in the

iot-devkit-prof-dev-image-edison-20160606 folder. Where does one specifically find it.

What is also unclear, are just the contents of this folder to be copied across OR the whole folder name including its name where it is the root folder on the drive. i.e. one root folder

iot-devkit-prof-dev-image-edison-20160606 on the drive only. This is not at all clear.

Finally unanswered can one reset the Edison breakout board to its factory setting.

Thank you for letting us know our previous reply was helpful. There shouldn’t be any difference in the flashing process between the first time you do it and on the next attempts. Depending on the image you’re flashing the time to flash may vary, but the procedure should be the same.

If not connected at the start but connected when asked for, the Next button never highlights.Could you post a picture of this window and confirm the connections on the Edison board? You can also share a picture of your Edison and it’s connections at the time you’re flashing.The flashall.bat file comes in the iot-devkit-prof-dev-image-edison-20160606 folder

On your following question you want to copy a folder from your computer to the Edison? If that’s the case then the preferred method is to copy the folder to an SD card and then copy the folder to whatever path you wish. The Sd Card contents will be in /media/sdcard.

And about the factory reset question. The thread shared in the previous post explained that the flashing process should restore everything to factory, except for the contents in the /home partition. If you’d like to return to factory, flash the board and manually delete everything under /home/root. Do not delete the /home/root directory, only the contents.

Sergio, for efficiency I have closed out this tread as answered. I have just ordered another new/clean Edison breakout CPU set and will step by step see how the initialization goes using the USB port(s). I'm still seeing all kinds of differing scenarios on the web. It’s still not clear (to me) if a new Edison requires the hookup only during the image flushing and must not be connected beforehand. My current boards actually require the serial connection working beforehand, also unclear which of the two (if not both) USB ports are to be used. And finally if a micro USB A or B connector makes a difference. As I said I’m writing up a detailed account here.